Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle Reading App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

"This is the face of war as only those who have fought it can describe it."–Senator John McCain

Fallujah: Iraq’s most dangerous city unexpectedly emerged as the major battleground of the Iraqi insurgency. For twenty months, one American battalion after another tried to quell the violence, culminating in a bloody, full-scale assault. Victory came at a terrible price: 151 Americans and thousands of Iraqis were left dead.

The epic battle for Fallujah revealed the startling connections between policy and combat that are a part of the new reality of war.

The Marines had planned to slip into Fallujah “as soft as fog.” But after four American contractors were brutally murdered, President Bush ordered an attack on the city–against the advice of the Marines. The assault sparked a political firestorm, and the Marines were forced to withdraw amid controversy and confusion–only to be ordered a second time to take a city that had become an inferno of hate and the lair of the archterrorist al-Zarqawi.

Based on months spent with the battalions in Fallujah and hundreds of interviews at every level–senior policymakers, negotiators, generals, and soldiers and Marines on the front lines–No True Glory is a testament to the bravery of the American soldier and a cautionary tale about the complex–and often costly–interconnected roles of policy, politics, and battle in the twenty-first century.

{"currencyCode":"USD","itemData":[{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":13.16,"ASIN":"0553383191","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":7.98,"ASIN":"1416596607","isPreorder":0}],"shippingId":"0553383191::3GK1qGbK1XoxnNBOtn3RZYkx6Tnd4zrpSjp5Mie6nQ6FE2Rf01eU7MNsOKe5y0te9%2BKbWL2HTh91ev6twnRT9ymqZumJKZ5T2mbiLjhVXkasxEGx6evTag%3D%3D,1416596607::or3lP9gFFzUl0R%2FiE%2Bo42jSmIsGihGT72BNbpyBvGO8fhkM4HvgYsT01C2FPcQ9BAaLbVVPGd8BbXe8kKsw9Al%2BuTI9FfW%2FvYcWy4Yc9Xd4%3D","sprites":{"addToWishlist":["wl_one","wl_two","wl_three"],"addToCart":["s_addToCart","s_addBothToCart","s_add3ToCart"],"preorder":["s_preorderThis","s_preorderBoth","s_preorderAll3"]},"shippingDetails":{"xy":"same"},"tags":["x","y","z","w"],"strings":{"addToWishlist":["Add to Wish List","Add both to Wish List","Add all three to Wish List","Add all four to Wish List"],"addToCart":["Add to Cart","Add both to Cart","Add all three to Cart","Add all four to Cart"],"showDetailsDefault":"Show availability and shipping details","shippingError":"An error occurred, please try again","hideDetailsDefault":"Hide availability and shipping details","priceLabel":["Price:","Price for both:","Price for all three:","Price For All Four:"],"preorder":["Pre-order this item","Pre-order both items","Pre-order all three items","Pre-order all four items"]}}

Review

“While many other correspondents have ventured to the front lines in Iraq, few have stayed as long as West, or brought as much knowledge of military affairs to their work. The result is a book that … features amazing accounts of heroism, brutality, perseverance, and gallows humor.”—Max Boot, The Weekly Standard

"No True Glory is the gripping account of the valor of the Marines in the fiercest urban combat since Hue. Yet, the even-handed description of the vacillation regarding policy will likely please neither some of our senior officers nor the White House."—Former Secretary of Defense, James R. Schlesinger

"No True Glory is the best book on the U.S. military in Iraq to emerge so far."—Tom Ricks of The Washington Post

“The finest chronicle of the strategy behind battle and the fighting during battle that I've ever read!"—General Carl E. Mundy, former Commandant of the Marine Corps

"A remarkably detailed, vivid firsthand account of the American military experience…. West’s focus is on the “frontline,” putting the reader at the negotiating table with U.S. military commanders and Fallujan sheiks, imams, and rebel leaders; in the barracks; and on the street, fighting hand to hand, house to house, in some of the fiercest battles of the Fallujah campaign and the Iraq war."—Booklist

“West describes the fury of the fighting in Fallujah and Ramadi in a style that makes him part historian, part novelist — the grunts' Homer.”—LA Times Book Review

“West successfully brings the war back home in all its agonizing and illuminating detail. From the combat stories of those on the ground all the way up to the White House, West [is] uniquely placed to write a chronicle of the fight. The narrative truly shines."—The Christian Science Monitor

“Exhaustively reported...West paints a picture of highly capable Marines struggling to make the best of untenable political circumstances.”—Washington Post Book World

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

The First and Second Battles of Fallujah, in April and October, 2004, represented the largest sustained US military engagement since the Battle of Hue over thirty years earlier in Vietnam. But just as the battles represented a landmark in terms of US military involvement in Iraq, the political and strategic landscape of the US position in the country was dramatically altered as a result of the campaign. No True Glory is a great overview of the battles and I would highly recommend it.

No True Glory provides a searing description of the fighting that destroyed that city, as well as an insightful and critical overview of the political and military decision- making that affected the outcome, and whose repercussions and lessons define Iraq today more than any other episode in the war.

The book outlines how The White House, senior generals and ambassadors ordered, then stopped, then re-ordered the attack upon Fallujah in April 2004, finally refusing to let the Marines finish the job at all. This occurred despite evidence that the Marines were close to clearing out the city. (Indeed, in less publicized battles in nearby Ramadi, the Marines had closed out an equally entrenched revolt. The major difference in Fallujah was international press coverage). Result: Fallujah became the stronghold of the insurgency and the Marines had to face a more entrenched and confident foe in October 2004. Fallujah provided a blueprint to the insurgents in the use of international political opinion to change the course of US military action.

The book also gives a clear insight into the challenges the US faces in pacifying the Sunni triangle, given the entrenched rebellion and the Sunni's fear of giving up control of Iraq.Read more ›

I have no literary critic's polished review to offer. My comments are based on pure emotion.

I was compelled to read this book--my son was there for the November 2004 campaign. He made it home, but my friend Sharon's son did not. I owe it these men and their brothers to understand as best I can. It is not something my son will discuss, and this is probably the most I'll ever know about his time there. Reading this book was painful. Despite crying my way through much of it, I couldn't put it down.

Not only does this book give you a grunt-eye view of the battles and fighting in the streets, it gives you that feeling of what the decision makers are going through as these young men fight and die for a higher calling.

I had yet to read a book that gave me the real story of how it is going and what we are doing. Mr. West has used his experiences as both a Marine and high government official to inform the reader of what is happening and why. A true hallmark of a well written book is that regardless of what side of this war you are on, this book would inform, enlighten and most importantly educate one on the facts.

What I knew in my heart but this book confirmed was the gross distortions not only the Arab viewers of Al J and Al A see but the even sadder distortions that millions of viewers of the BBC saw as these brave young men fought in Fallujah. If just one British person that thinks the Marines slaughtered the innocents in Fallujah reads this book he will realize the distortion he has been subjected too.

Every person in any Coalition government that is involved with Iraq should read this book.

I served in the Marines in the early 1990s, and worked for some of the individuals described in this book, including Col John Toolan and Maj Gen James Mattis. This book does a terrific job on many levels, but one of the best things is to get a close-up description of these key individuals under the stress of combat. Toolan comes across as a guy who is always up front with his Marines, level headed, decisive. Mattis is a officer who embodies the fighting spirit of the Marines under his command. In West's previous book, The March Up, the signature moment for Mattis is when a group of Marines attack past his humvee, which is out front. One of the Marines stops, breathing heavily. Mattis offers him some water from his hummer. The Marine clasps Mattis on the shoulder, and says, "thanks man." In this book, Mattis' signature moment may be when he is late to a meeting of other generals due to his detour to help fight an ambush with the two light armored vehicles that he is travelling in. That's General Mattis.

This book is superbly written and researched. It presents a balanced and incisive view of the operation in and around Fallujah during OIF2. Along with The March Up, West has established himself as the premiere chronicler of Marine Operations in Operation Iraqi Freedom I and II. Taken together with his previous works (The Village and The Pepperdogs), his body of work covers over 3 decades, and may end where it started -- in Small Wars types of operations in a counterinsurgency.

This tells the story of the American battles in Falluja - all 3 of them. And it gives the full background around them, why the first was stopped, why the second was rushed and then stopped, and why the third one was finally approved.

This is probably the best example of the problem with trying to bring peace and sanity to Iraq. All of the major problems are here in this microcosm.

You see what happens to those Iraqis who try to step forward to make Iraq a better place and why those that want death and anarchy win. You see how politics, both U.S. and Iraqi have a gigantic impact on what can be done and when.

And you see how the Marines have to then take the fight to the insurgents and how horrible and bloddy that is.

What is really interesting about this is the book is written by an ex-Marine and Regean assistant secretary of defense. And he clearly has great respect for the Marines and for what the U.S. is trying to accomplish in Iraq.

But at the same time, he writes in a very even-handed manner and it leaves you with a feeling of hopelessness. Yes with significant Marine casualties the U.S. can take any city. But what is left is a ruin and the cost for accomplishing it is so very high.

It will definitely leave you trying to figure out if the battle (the last one) was worth it. And wondering how out of all this, any success is possible.

More About the Author

Bing West is a former assistant secretary of defense who chaired the US Security Commissions with El Salvador, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Pakistan, South Korea and Japan. A combat Marine, he has been on hundreds of patrols in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. He has written ten books about national security and battle.